BothInteract_ConfigurableProductVariantsImageAssignment

This extension enables you to automatically copy a custom list of required image types from parent configurable products to variants (i.e. associated child simple products) once the parent product is saved.

Thus, you can create copies of your configurable products like you used to do and this extension will take care of automatically copying required image types from your parent product to all children product variants.

Images Types
The list of possible image types includes:

Base image
Small image
Thumbnail

You can easily set your required images types for child products associated with configurable products using the configuration tab.

Overwriting Images
Please note that only the required image types set in the configuration will be copied to child products.

Thus, if you manually set any of the required image types when creating your product variants (e.g. via Copy from Configurable) they will not be overwritten when saving the parent configurable product.

In conclusion, you can consider this extension as helpful addition to automatically set required image typed for product variants.

Simulate Image Assignment
Furthermore, you can also simulate the process of auto-assigning images from your parent products to associated by activating the corresponding option in the configuration under General / Simulate. This way you can easily check beforehand if your child products need required image types set in the configuration.

Log File
In addition this extension enabled you to logs messages to a custom log file that can be specified in the configuration options to your log directory under General / Log File.

So you have the option to easily track events handled by this extension and check for possible problems.